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Location, location, location ...

Drones, it seems, being heavy, opportunistic fellows, like to mate near home. They fly in the proximity to their apiary for longer hours than queens, ever hopeful.

Queens, it seems, being graceful amazonian females, prefer to fly 1-3 miles to mate in the afternoon. "Bring home fresh genes" their instinct tells them.

We have Amm bees in two apiaries within 1/3 mile of one another. So it's probably not clever to place the mating apiary between them, as we have. Perhaps the queens would be happier if it is 1 mile away.

I'm wondering, for instance, if the queens, finding drones within a short distance of their apiary only, will be inclined to ignore them and chance their luck by flying great distances to mate? In our case, they could fly over to Mull ... quite a spree ... but not great for the pure breeding.

I'm wondering, for instance, if the queens, finding drones within a short distance of their apiary only, will be inclined to ignore them and chance their luck by flying great distances to mate? In our case, they could fly over to Mull ... quite a spree ... but not great for the pure breeding.

Hi again Kate
What might be worth considering is having a central queen raising apiary
Then several satellite apiaries strategically positioned at some distance from that central one
I don't know the mating mechanism by which mates are chosen or if it is just random chance
In either case it would seem important to have drone raising hives with many unrelated queens producing them in the satellites